Affective governance, disaster, and the unfinished colonial project

Abstract

This chapter examines Indian state occupation as a project of racialized “affective governance,” that is, one that seeks to transform Kashmiri aspirations for self-determination into acquiescence to Indian rule by producing in Kashmiris a psychological, affective, and emotional disposition of dependency and gratitude vis-à-vis the Indian state. In a range of social, institutional, and military settings, including in the aftermath of the 2014 flood, Kashmiri Muslims are continuously called upon to demonstrate their gratitude toward the Indian nation-state, military, and public. Their inevitable failure to properly demonstrate gratitude becomes the engine for further military and psychological intervention. The chapter also spotlights moments of political refusal on the part of Kashmiris to perform obeisance to the Indian state. Together these examples reveal how sovereign power must be analyzed as a project of not just political and military, but also subjective, psychological, and affective control.